Weekly Doodle Challenge
Ron Pippin of Outside Voice, an art network for families based in Austin, suggested a weekly drawing exercise. So we’re introducing a new doodle theme each week for our Weekly Doodle Challenge. (Scroll down for the challenges).
Full disclosure: I found that I wasn’t able to keep this up every week, so below are ideas I’ve collected as well.
Come draw with us!
Just draw and share with the subject tag on social media. We’ll share your work here or on twitter or Instagram with the #weeklydoodle #kidcandoodle hashtags. PS. All ages welcome!
2018
Here’s more monthly challenges:
January : 30 Paintings in 30 Days created by Leslie Saeta
For you painters! Image below and info via Kick in the Creatives
February : Faces hosted by Kick in the Creatives
image by Don Moyer
March : Meet the Maker created by Joanne Hawker
April : The #100dayproject started by Elle Luna
May : #Mermay : doodle a mermaid everyday
See more here.
June : Juicy June Color Challenge hosted by Este MacLeod
July – August : Potter Week Drawing Prompts with Taryn Knight
Potter Week is perfect for Harry Potter fans! Drawing starts the last week of July, with a different prompt each week. The list is below imagines what it might be like to be at Hogwarts, and is spearheaded by Taryn Knight.
August : Lettering and Doodling with Dawn Nicole
October : Inktober
Inktober is a yearly October doodle challenge created by Jake Parker that is popular on social media. You can use any ink, and you don’t even have to go by the prompts if you don’t want to. The thing is to do it daily.
Intober prompts
Inktober rules
This was the one I did for October 1st posted on instagram:
2017
I know I’ve been focusing on other things this year, but I have found a couple of new doodle challenges that I wanted to share:
Lucky Draw Challenge
I discovered Lucky Draw Challenge when Rikin Parekh shared one of his doodles and tagged them on Facebook. They have weekly challenges, and here’s a recent favorite:
Cat burglar + Pancake
by Scrottvoegelchen
2016
This year, we’re introducing guest prompts on the Weekly Doodle Challenge.
Week 36
For you social media-savvy artists, this prompt comes from 14 year-old Leo, creator of Gargar Comics, and Sketchbook Sunday. The latter is a drawing challenge with a different theme each week. Open to all ages, and shared online with the tag #sketchbooksunday Draw a snowman.
Week 35
We had to share this awesome idea from artist Clym Evernden. All you need is a sheet of paper and your favorite drawing pens or pencils. Fold your sheet 8 times, as Clym shows in the video, and draw as you open the page.
Week 34
We love this doodle a scribble monster idea from Hello Wonderful, a terrific creative lifestyle resource for families. We agree that it’s a great way to show “everyone can draw!”
Week 33
Have you subscribed to or followed The Dad Lab yet? This clever pop mixes art + science in his projects for kids that delight and teach. I like this doodling idea on a sunny day: Shadow Tracing.
Week 32
The amazing Tina Berning saw my repost on instagram by Cristina Papacu about doodling your mom, and shared this lovely doodle prompt with us: Doodle your kid and have them doodle you!
Week 31
Michelle from Beret Nice Illustration has a nifty tip for using Copic blenders with regular Crayola marker pens (which are much cheaper!) to get better results. She also shows us how to doodle birds with her in this video:
Week 30
An unexpected doodle prompt comes from Paperchase, a popular stationery chain in the United Kingdom full of gorgeous illustrated goodies. Draw a literal picture of king prawns, king crab, hammerhead shark, or cat fish, like in this shop window.
Here’s a good one of “egghead” by @floortinga
Week 29
David Zinn creates whimsical street art with chalk and his imagination. See if you can doodle outside using some of your surroundings as inspiration. Can a crack in the sidewalk or patch of grassy weeds become part of your drawing?
Week 28
This week’s prompt is inspired by a drawing by Maya that I discovered at House of Illustration in London. Draw an animal and then add an extra body part to it:
Week 27
It’s August, and we’re joining in a doodle challenge called #drawingAugust started 4 years ago by Wales Art Review’s design editor Dean Lewis and artist/printmaker Jean Stevens. Starting on day 1/August 1 with a puffer fish (the August theme for @pinchpunchpost ) and I’ve decided to continue with sea creatures. Follow along and draw with us daily on instagram. 
puffer fish comic by Lil Dude
Week 26
Summer is the perfect time to draw outdoors. Julie Adore’s brilliant suggestion is an oldie but goodie: look at the clouds and doodle what you see.
Week 25
Have you guys heard about the $3,700 Doodle Theory Contest? To enter, download and doodle some squiggles like these below. See all the details and download the squiggles here. Deadline is August 10, 2016.
Week 24
Love this Less is More idea from Frédéric Forest: Describe something with fewer than 10 lines. Can you do it?
Week 23
If you’re not spending warm summer days outside, maybe you’ll be doodling Yuval Zommer’s “How to Draw Bugs” from his beautifully illustrated The Big Book of Bugs (via The Guardian)
Start with a shape:
Add legs (or not):
Doodle eyes and antennae:
Don’t forget the wings for the flying bugs.
Check out the gorgeous The Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer.
Week 22
We love this doodle idea from calligrapher/lettering artist Tolga Girgin : Doodle faces with the shadows from a crumpled-up piece of paper. Watch the video below.
Week 21
This week I’m sharing a #PortraitChallenge from Sarah McIntyre’s Virtual Studio : Draw this Japanese woodblock portrait, Karagoto of the House of Chojiya by Utamaro, 1801, Honolulu Museum of Art
I love Sarah’s “blind contour” portrait (drawing while looking at your reference and NOT your hand/paper):
Week 20
Health coach and mother of two boys, Ceren Arik-Begen has an easy doodle puppet that I had to share with you.
Take a letter or A4 sized sheet of paper, fold it in half and then half again, so that you have four strips. Open the sheet, and re-fold in the two ends so that they meet in the middle. On these two panels, draw something with a mouth that would open where the two ends meet.
(Here’s two fishies)
Then open it, and draw the “inside” of the mouth. When you’re finished, refold and animate your puppet character by gently opening and closing the mouth.
Thanks for sharing these lovely drawings and gorgeous idea with us Ceren!
Week 19
Graphic designer Jan Bajtlik shares a page from his fabulous Alphadoodler: The Activity Book That Brings Letters to Life (Tate Publishing). Download and doodle the page below!
Week 18
Designer, illustrator, and doodle bomber Steph Dillon gave us some pointers for creating a doodle bomb: Find a photograph of your favorite landscape or urban setting and fill the empty spaces with a structure, objects, and/or characters to create your own unique scene. You can use markers on printed pieces or draw digitally in your favorite photo editing app.
Week 17
Penny Neville-Lee is back again with a Weekly Doodle Challenge worthy of Mother’s Day (next Sunday, May 8, 2016 in the USA). Collaborate with your kids! Here, Penny colored in her son’s drawing:
Week 16
So stoked that Claudi Kessels is our doodle guest this week! I remember stumbling across Claudi’s instagram and was chuffed she agreed to be on 3 1/2 Questions. (Claudi’s as charming as her drawings, and inspired our Field Notes doodle download).
Doodle bomb this photograph:
psst . . . Make sure to subscribe to kidcandoodle (above) for an exclusive doodle download created by Claudi Kessels!
Week 15
Multi-talented Melani Grube gave us this week’s doodle prompt based on her own wonderfully wet paintings. See if you can transform these paint splotches into your own doodle.
Here’s Melani’s doodle:
Week 14
This week’s guest is none other than the inspiration for Weekly Doodle Challenge — Ron Pippin himself! Ron is currently working on an upcoming Creative Arts Show for kids called ARTtv and we can’t wait to see it! His suggestion, co-drawing, comes from Outside Voice’s popular blog Explore Art. To play, you need a partner, paper, and pens or pencils.
The younger person should go first, making a line on a page.
Then each person takes turns doodling and adding to the same drawing, collaborating.
Voilà!
Week 13
Our guest this week is one of my favorite artists of all time, Henri Matisse. I am especially fond of his paper cut-outs. Matisse first used cut paper to design his painting commissions, but when he became ill in his 60s, it became his preferred medium.
Henri Matisse, The Snail 1953
© Succession H. Matisse / DACS 2014
Doodle an animal using only cut paper (refer to The Snail, 1953, above).
Week 12
When kid can doodle debuted on twitter, Lucy Monkman was one of our first followers. Lucy’s doodle challenge is just in time for Easter/Spring. Lucy favors simple shapes in her work, and she suggested using these egg shapes to doodle chicks, bunnies, or lambs:
Here’s Lucy’s doodles:
Week 11
Shari Mallinson is not only a darn-good doodler, but a frequent contributor and friend to KCD. Shari invites you to collaborate with her by downloading and finishing this doodle:
Week 10
Awesome Artist, author and illustrator Tim Miller suggests doodling Snappsy the Alligator this week. Watch Tim doodle Snappsy in this video, and follow along:
Snappsy Did Not Ask to Be in This Video About How to Draw Him from Tim Miller on Vimeo.
Week 9
Esther K Smith, author of Making Books with Kids, gave us our Doodle prompt this week. If you haven’t already, please check out her new book here. Then download the instructions to make a pop-up face accordion book.
Esther says: What will you draw on yours? You can draw with your scissors too. Try cutting other kinds of lines instead of the straight ones for your pop-up eyes and mouth. But be sure to leave enough space for your fold. That’s your hinge that keeps it from falling apart.
Week 8
Our doodle guest this week is Colour Collective, a weekly challenge to make art featuring a different hue, initiated by Penny Neville-Lee, “illustrator and all round good egg.” To join in, this week’s color is Moss.
Here’s Penny’s gorgeous entry. Follow her on twitter. 
Week 7
Colleen Kong Savage, our first guest on 3 1/2 Questions, has our doodle prompt this week: Take an ink pad (or a little bit of paint) make a thumbprint with your finger. Add details.
Week 6
Hey Kids! This week’s guest is Tom Nash, the wordsmith behind Tut and Groan “a wordplay webcomic by someone who can’t draw.” Not long ago our own Little Dude was a guest on Tom’s toon, and we’re tickled that Tom has treated us to two prompts: Draw a pie in the sky or add to the following doodle:
Here’s a pie by Carin Channing.
Week 5
Our guest this week is Pinch Punch Post, aka social media darling Thea Baker, suggesting a theme to doodle each month. Contributors are invited to share their drawings on twitter or Facebook at the beginning of the month. Kids can join too by tagging doodles with #pinchpunchpostjunior. March 1st theme is a butterfly.
Here’s my butterfly (lollygadoodling).
Week 4
This week’s doodle brought to us by @AnimalAlphabets (a weekly twitter creative challenge to draw an animal representing a letter, initiated by illustrator Chris Chatterton, with tweets by Ste Johnson, and assistance from Deborah Partington) : Doodle a sloth for the letter S.
Here’s my sloth.
Week 3
Author/Illustrator Sarah McIntyre (Pugs of the Frozen North, Cakes in Space, both published by Random House for Young Readers) created a virtual studio — a doodle community so that illustrators can create and share on twitter. Here’s one of her recent popular #shapechallenge prompts: (download and transform into a drawing)
Here’s Little Dude’s and mine.
Week 2
Our weekly doodle comes from 3 1/2 Questions guest Carin Channing, author of 365 Days of Doodling: Discovering the Joys of Being Creative Every Day. Doodle some new people you’d like to meet in 2016.
Click here to see who I’d like to meet.
Week 1
Herewith the first prompt in 2016: courtesy of the lovely Sheena Monahan, who created @3yroldscribble Download this scribble below and transform into your own drawing.
Here’s mine.
2015
Week 15
Show us your favorite costume!
Week 14
“Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!” – Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
Draw a Jubjub bird, or Bandersnatch or your own imaginary character and name it.
Week 13
What would your book cover look like?
Week 12
Draw your favorite bad guy (villian) !
Week 11
What is your favorite literary character?
Week 10
How about drawing a #XerusYachtingwithaZebra ?
Week 9
Let’s see your #VacationingWalruses
Week 8
Choose one: #StripyTigersUnderwear or #SixTicklishUnicorns
Week 7
This week’s doodle is #PorcupineAndQuokkaRomance
Week 6
Hope to see your #PeacockQuarrelingwithRabbit this week!
Week 5
Thanks to Jill McPartlin Reiter for this week’s suggestion: #MonkeysNightOut
Week 4
Can you show us a #JollyKoalaLeaping ?
Week 3
How about a #GiraffeHidingInAnIgloo ?
Week 2
Can you draw a #DancingElephantFarting ?
Week 1
We’d love to see your #ArmadilloBakingCakes
All art copyrighted by their respective owners and used by permission.
